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Don Sebastiani & Sons International Wine Négociants, known for marketing upscale varietals and a few downmarket brands, said Friday it plans to spinoff its The Other Guys and Three Loose Screws units as stand-alone, family-owned companies by year-end or early 2010, and is taking other steps to augment and restructure its family of family-owned wine enterprises.

Officials said the new game plan for the Sonoma-based company, in part inspired by a “generational transition,” calls for The Other Guys and Three Loose Screws units to become separate companies, with family patriarch Don Sebastiani Sr. continuing to serve as CEO and chairman of Don Sebastiani & Sons and the spun-off Three Loose Screws, and The Other Guys companies.

Don Sebastiani Sr., said in the July 31 statement that his and his wife Nancy’s children and grandchildren will be The Other Guys’ shareholders. Ownership of Three Loose Screws was not addressed.

Company spokesman Jim Knapp clarified Friday afternoon that the recent flurry of new hires and structural changes has not eliminated any positions at the company or cost any executives their jobs, but that about "five to eight" people lost or left jobs at Sebastiani last fall.

“I am energized by the changes and looking forward to the opportunity to get more directly involved with the next chapter of The Other Guys,” Don Sebastiani Sr. said in the statement.

More broadly, Sebastiani's new strategy is to continue to focus on smaller-volume craft wines, the family-owned company said Friday, “while expanding its portfolio.”

The soon-to-be-independent The Other Guys unit, launched about four years ago, now sells more than 100,000 cases annually, the company said, including brands like Hey Mambo and Leese-Fitch.

Three Loose Screws, meanwhile, is known for the lower-cost, “volume brands” Smoking Loon and Pepperwood Grove, and has evolved over the last 18 months in what principal and Executive Director Don Sebastiani Jr, acknowledged “has been a bit of a bumpy ride.”

The plan is to shift upward, toward premium categories, with the recent launches of brands such as B Side, The Crusher, and Flock, as well as a re-launch of the restaurant-driven Aquinas Napa Valley brand. Don Sebastiani Jr. noted that recent changes at Three Loose Screws have made significant progress in transforming it into a “‘grown-up’, structured, and professionally-run business.”

Don Sebastiani & Sons’ principals include Don Sebastiani Sr. and his sons Donny (Don Jr.) and August. The company is based in Sonoma Valley, and has a winery in Napa Valley.

The company also announced that Emilia (Mia) Sebastiani, one of Don Sebastiani Sr.’s children, has joined the business as director of the Mia’s Kitchen division. A recent graduate of Loyola Marymount University, she has worked closely with the company to develop the Mia’s Kitchen product line, which includes wine reduction sauces for cooking. She joins brothers Donny and August Sebastiani as fourth-generation family members in the family wine business.

The Don Sebastiani family and company also disclosed a number of other changes at the Other Guys and the Three Loose Screws divisions, in a rather unusual and confusing compilation of months’ worth of news in a single press release.

Knapp confirmed Friday morning that both divsions -- The Other Guys and Three Loose Screws -- “will be separate stand-alone companies” by the end of 2009 or thereabouts.

In its lengthy, action-packed new release Friday the company said The Other Guys will be led as COO by 18-year company veteran Richard Zeller, who will report directly to Don Sebastiani Sr. Previously, he was vice president of sales for Three Loose Screws’ western region.

In other Other Guys’ developments:

Jean Arnold, currently the unit’s national sales manager, will continue in that role and report to Zeller.

Keith Casale, director of finance at Don Sebastiani & Sons, will “begin the transition” to become The Other Guys’ CFO.

Also moving the parent company to the new Other Guys’ are Office Manager Alice Castorena and Sales Coordinator Jenn Houseman.

Mike Sheetz will shift from area manager at Three Loose Screws to become the Other Guys’ western regional manager, reporting to Arnold. He has been responsible for sales in Southern California, Nevada and Hawaii.

Jonathan White joins The Other Guys as its new Northeast Regional Sales Manager. He was most recently a regional sales manager for Slocum & Sons Purveyors & Importers.

Sebastiani & Sons also said Friday that The Other Guys’ long-time director of winemaking, Richard Bruno, moved into a consulting role earlier this summer “to balance his other wine industry interests, including his own private label, Vinum Cellars.” He also will be a consulting winemaker for Michael Pozzan Winery and work as a consultant for The Other Guys, while former associate winemaker Greg Kitchens becomes winemaker for Three Loose Screws.

Finally, the Three Loose Screws unit announced the hiring of several new staffers and said it plans to add other positions by year-end as it, too, becomes a separate company.

They include:

Andrew Meyer, a veteran of Robert Mondavi Corp., Constellation Wines U.S. and Delicato Family Vineyard Wines, who is joining Three Loose Screws as Illinois-base vice president of customer and channel management, responsible for its national on- and off-premise chain business.

Tom Hawkins assumes the post of vice president of finance at Three Loose Screws, after 28 years at Beam Wine Estates, most recently as its vice president of finance and planning.

Brianna Pachmayer is the unit’s new national accounts manager for customer and channel management. Previously she was a national account manager with Beam Global Spirits and Future Brands LLC.

Ryan Waltz has been named area manager for Three Loose Screws’ South region, covering Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. He was most recently Michigan manager for Remy Cointreau USA.

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